Introduction:

Diversity and diversity management in multicultural workforce is increasingly becoming an important

issue for the business in the era of globalization. It affects the productivity and efficiency of the
workforce in general. In recent years, diversity has come to play a central role in organizational life, due
to increased globalization, greater workforce diversity, and the increasing complexity of jobs. The term
diversity has many interpretations. Different scholars have defined it in different way. Cox (2001) defined
diversity as the variation of social and cultural identities among people existing together in a defined
employment or marketing setting. While, William and O’Reilly (1998) defined diversity as the degree of
heterogeneity among team members on specified demographic dimensions, their theory aims to explain
how such heterogeneity affects team processes and performance. Thomas and Ely (1998) argue that
diversity should be understood as the varied perspectives and approaches to work that member of
different identity groups bring.

Diversity Management:

Diversity management matters a great deal in modern workplaces. That’s because equality and diversity
in the workplace can lead to better functioning teams, happier employees, and, on top of that, more
revenue. Even though it sounds like an HR manager’s dream, diversity management can turn it all into a
reality. In order to achieve this extra revenue, though, and without generating additional conflict, it’s
important to really understand diversity. Diversity management, as part of HR management, is
organizational action taken to promote the greater inclusion of employees across a variety of
backgrounds. Its overall goal is to promote equality and diversity in the workplace through the social,
cultural, and ethnic diversity of employees, by employing policies and strategies that are responsive to it.
What Is Diversity Management In The Workplace?
Managing workforce diversity implies creating an organizational climate in which a heterogeneous
workforce performs to its best potential; without the organization favoring /dis-favoring any particular
segment of workforce with a view to facilitating the best attainment of organizational goals.

In the workplace, diversity management is a process of creating a working environment that is both
diverse and inclusive. It values what every employee brings to the table as unique so that an organization
can grow and succeed accordingly. The overarching theory is that when employees come together
from different backgrounds, creative problem-solving processes grow in turn. This is thanks in part
to an increased amount of varying perspectives.

Features of Workforce Diversity Management:

Some salient features of workforce diversity management are stated below:

i) Workforce diversity management requires creation of an organisational climate, in which people from
different cultural, social backgrounds and being diverse in many other respects (e.g. age, gender,
education etc.) can co-exist and work, with full co-operation of one another.

(ii) Workforce diversity management aims at making people work to the best of their potential

(iii)Workforce diversity management rules out any discrimination among people, in any respect,
whatsoever.

(iv) Work-force diversity management is expected to work towards the best attainment of organizational
goals.
 Dimension of Workforce Diversity:
What exactly does a “diverse” team look like, though? Well, you certainly need to do more than just think
about gender diversity every now and then in order to check the “diversity” box.

Rather, diversity becomes apparent in very different ways, for example through:

 Internal factors: age, gender, education, ethnic origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation, and
disability
External factors: income, education, work experience, marital status, parenthood, habits, leisure
behavior, and geographical location.

Some people dimensions of workforce diversity are described below:

(i) Age:

People belonging to different age groups cause diversity in workforce. Young people may be enriched
with health, merit, capacity for hard-work etc.; while elderly people may possess more maturity than their
junior counterparts and are full of experiences of life.

(ii) Gender:

Male workers are usually aggressive, bold and materialistic; while female workers possess sympathy for
others and are more concerned with quality of life. What is important to observe is that people of both sex
have material differences in outlook, nature, habits etc.; as differences between males and females are the
design of God who created mankind.

(iii) Education:

In an organisation people may range from less educated to highly educated. Educated people have a broad
outlook and are open-minded. They are endowed with logic and rationality and usually dislike
discrimination among individuals on petty grounds of caste, color, religion etc.
(iv) Culture:

Culture is a complex of race, religion, language, social traditions and values etc. People from different
cultural backgrounds may have ethnic orientations i.e. a sense of favoritism towards their nation, race or
tribe, which they belong to.

(v) Psychology:

(Psychology is the kind of mind that one has that makes one think or behaves in a particular way). In an
organisation, there are people with different psychology. Some may be optimistic or pessimistic; some
may be bold or timid or so on. Psychology may be a gift of Nature or a manifestation of family
background or social affiliations.

Significance of Workforce Diversity Management:

A diverse workplace can help organizations in a variety of ways. Mainly, it can serve as a reflection
of a diversifying world — thanks to demographic changes, globalization, and digitization, workplace
diversity can help teams become better attuned to the many needs of their customers.

Workforce diversity management is significant for the following reasons:

(i) Ability to Deal with Diverse Market:

Culturally diverse workforce can better appreciate the needs, feedings, and attitudes of culturally diverse
consumers. Thus workforce diversity increases the competence of a corporation to deal with a market;
that consists of diverse consumer groups in respect of age, sex, culture etc.
(ii) Better Decision-Making:

People from heterogeneous backgrounds may aid management in better decision-making, by offering
suggestions from a wide range of perspectives and orientations. In fact, heterogeneous groups of people
may be more creative and innovative; when they pool their knowledge and experiences and agree on a
common solution to a tricky problem; which might aid management in making excellent decisions for the
organization.

(iii) Better Human Relations:

Workforce diversity management aims at developing and nurturing a common organisational culture and
climate; which enable people from diverse culture and backgrounds to co-exist peacefully. Such a
common organisational culture and climate leads to better human relations in the enterprise and produces
all-round organisational and managerial efficiency.

(iv) Preventing Unnecessary Labour Turnover:

When in an organisation there is good workforce diversity management; women and other dis-satisfied
people are prevented from leaving the organisation. In case otherwise, when there is large labour turnover
because of poor workforce diversity management; investment made in manpower may go waste, with
other bad consequences for the organisation. In fact, employees leave the organisation when they do not
feel comfortable and duly cared for by management.

(v) Building of Goodwill of the Enterprise:

Companies with excellent workforce diversity management build goodwill in the society. As such,
talented people of society with diverse backgrounds and culture get attracted towards it for seeking
suitable employment. Such companies never have a problem of the scarcity of skilled, educated and
talented human capital.

Techniques of Workforce Diversity Management:

As a rule, diversity management is integrated into a company’s HR or People function. However, some
global corporations have whole teams or departments dedicated to it. These teams or employees typically
help with some of the core tasks related to diversity management in the workplace, including:
 Developing inclusive hiring plans and processes
 Overall working policies that expand beyond simply hiring
 Providing diversity training and learning opportunities for all employees
 Playing the role of facilitator when it comes to communications
 Encouraging interactions that help promote workplace diversity
Given the range of tasks, it’s understandable why diversity management often requires a team approach.
For such a company-wide initiative, it’s crucial that diversity management is done right on every level of
the business.

For all intents and purposes, diversity management is the responsibility of HR. However, that does not
mean that they can implement the process single-handedly. 
Here are what teams and organizations can do to prepare for and promote workplace diversity:

1. Ensure Operational Readiness

Management, in particular, has a significant influence on whether diversity and inclusion are truly put
into practice. First, make sure that the management team is ready to re-evaluate its corporate culture.

In order to implement your HR diversity management practices, try and anchor your new values in
concrete principles to ensure they are both present and measurable. Volkswagen, for example, has
maintained its commitment to greater equality of opportunity and diversity within the company with its
‘TOGETHER Strategy 2025.
2. Identify Priorities and Goals
Before you decide, together with management, which diversity management initiatives make sense for
your company, you should take a look at your corporate goals. Which skills are important to you? What
helps you grow? And where are your problem areas?

 Is the company’s rate of staff turnover above average? Then you should consider how you can improve
the working atmosphere and hire and retain the right talent.
 Do you find it hard to warm to international customers? If so, your priority should be to understand them
better.
 Is your product range hopelessly dull? In this case, multicultural workshops could help to boost your
capacity for innovation.
3. Determine Initiatives
Now it is time to pull out all the stops. After determining how you expect your company to benefit from
cultural diversity, you should create a plan of action. The initiatives themselves can take effect at a
strategic level or be designed to be put into practice by the employees themselves.

What Are Actionable Workplace Diversity Initiatives Teams Can Take?

If you’re learning how to manage diversity in the workplace, you need to think about how to promote it.
Let’s consider any one of these key initiatives as a starting point for HR departments:

 Mentoring programs for employees

 Management coaching on culture-specific topics
 A culturally adapted advertising or communications strategy
 Regular cross-departmental projects
 Deploying an equal opportunity representative in the company
 Offering language courses and language learning partnerships to break down language barriers
 Actively combating stereotypes (for example, through awareness training)
 Facilitating intercultural competence and conflict management
 Restructuring existing recruitment processes to increase opportunities for equality
 Offering a range of meal types in the company cafeteria (vegan, kosher, vegetarian, etc.)
  Providing prayer rooms
 Flexible working hour schedules
 Child care services for employees with children
 International cooking evenings
 Senior- and disability-friendly workplaces
4. Allocate Roles
Make sure that areas of responsibility are clearly defined, both within and outside the HR department. For
example, HR recruiters should be checking recruitment processes to ensure that job advertisements are
formulated in a non-discriminatory way.
5. Monitor Results
Have your initiatives been productive? To find out, there are various indicators you can consider. For
example, surveying satisfaction levels among employees and customers. Check the staff turnover rates.
And take the temperature of the office:
 What is the prevailing atmosphere?
 Are ideas like shared cooking evenings attracting attention?
 Do employees feel valued and understood?
In order to discreetly find out how satisfied employees are, tools like Leapsome are ideal. With their help,
managers and HR can obtain anonymous responses from their teams and see immediately if the
atmosphere within the company is strained.

Some techniques for successful workforce diversity management are suggested

below:

(i) Creating Awareness of Diversity:

Management must create awareness in the organisation that differences among people as to age, sex,
education, culture etc. exist in workforce; so that people may try to understand one another in a more
rational and friendly manner.

(ii) Creating Conditions for Common Organisational Culture:

Organisation must develop cross-cultural training programs creating conditions for development of a
common organisational culture and climate. Such common culture will create an environment in which a
diversified work force can co-exist comfortably, peacefully and happily.
(iii) Programs of Special Care for Diversified Workforce:

Management must design programs of special care, like the following:

1. Care for elderly people

2. Special work schedules to provide convenience to female workers etc.

(iv) Career Development Programs:

There must be program for identifying each individual’s strengths, weaknesses and potential for career
development; so that the organization can capitalize on the peculiar features of a diversified workforce. In
fact, people should be valued for their difference and variety.

(v) Avoiding Discriminations:

A very significant technique for excellent workforce diversity management is to avoid any sort of
discrimination among people on the basis of age, culture and specially sex. In the most developed country
the U.SA, the Glass Ceiling Commission states that between 95 and 97 percent of senior managers in the
country’s biggest corporations are men.

(vi) Prevention of Sexual Harassment:

With the entry of a large number of women in organisations, the phenomenon of sexual harassment is
usually witnessed; which management must prevent by all means and at all costs. Sexual harassment
includes a range of actions, like – unwelcome touching, joking, teasing, innuendoes (indirectly bad and
rude remarks), slurs, and the display of sexually explicit materials.

According to Jenny Watson, Deputy Chairman of the UK’s Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC),
sexual harassment is no laughing matter for hundreds of thousands of British workers, who experience it.

(vii) Committees of Diverse Members:

Committees of diverse members must be formed for evaluating and addressing complaints of people,
regarding their sad experience of working in the organisation.

What is an Equality and Diversity Policy?

Many companies will employ an equality and diversity policy as part of their organizational makeup. It
often discusses the importance of workplace diversity, and how companies will seek to live it in their
policies, programs, and actions. Of course, the most important part of a document like this is ensuring you
have the actions to match.

How Has Diversity Management In The Workplace Evolved?

Originally, diversity management was primarily about avoiding discrimination in recruitment and
promoting tolerance within the company. But, over time and with multiple factors, things have evolved to
where companies recognize the importance of diversity in the workplace as a key competitive advantage.
In order to show an in-depth understanding of a range of customers, a hiring policy geared toward
diversity and inclusion pays dividends. That’s why companies such as Airbus, Porsche, Zeiss, and
Volkswagen have long since put their faith in workplace diversity. In its Wolfsburg location alone,
Volkswagen employs people from over 100 countries.

What Are The Challenges In Managing Diversity At Work?

Although companies benefit from a diverse corporate culture, a very diverse range of employees working
together also holds the potential for conflict. They are as follows:
Team-internal conflicts: 
When completely different perspectives and life experiences come together, a lot of tolerance, acceptance,
and empathy are required. So, keep your eyes peeled: Is there any friction in the team? Power games?
Maybe even signs of bullying? Make sure that employees have a contact person at all times in case of
problems. Leaders should ensure transparency and openness within their teams and hold regular feedback
meetings.
Cooperation conflicts: 
In Ethiopia, work processes may well be very different than in Norway. And a 55-year-old will approach
their duties differently than a 25-year-old. This can lead to communication problems in everyday
interactions. HR managers should therefore ensure that employees share some common ground. This is
something intercultural workshops and information events can help with.

The tokenism problem: 

 Candidates recruited as part of diversity programs are sometimes perceived as underperforming
or over-advantaged “token minorities.” This can lead to a focus on their gender, skin color, or age
rather than their abilities.
 To avoid this, you should promote an open, transparent, and enlightened cooperate culture and
communicate clearly which specific abilities the person in question brings to the team.
 Make sure that subconscious prejudices are exposed and diverse candidates are not seen as
representatives of a minority, but rather as capable employees who enrich the company and its
workforce.

Hp Way of Diversity Management

Hp started its diversity management policies at the very beginning which it called ‘open corporate
policy’. Their management style is known as ‘management by walking around’ and the motive is
‘everyone in the organization wants to do a good job’ (Menke et al., 2006). The open culture created an
atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding in the early days of Hp as trust is thought to be the most
important for a profitable and flourishing enterprise. Managing Diversity at Workplace 165 Hewlett and
Packard formalized the Hp Way in 1957, the year the company went public (Dong, 2002). Hp’s unique
company culture is known as the Hp Way and is based on a set of five enduring organizational values,
seven corporate objectives, and a number of strategies and practices (Menke et al., 2006). Five
organizational values are trust and respect, high level of achievement and contribution, uncompromising
integrity, teamwork and flexibility and innovation. Seven corporate objectives are profit, customers, fields
of interest, growth, people, management, and citizenship. Strategies and practices include Management by
Objective, Management by Walking around and Open Corporate Policy.

Hp Diversity and Inclusion Model

Hp diversity and inclusion model is well understood by the figure 6 and 7 as both of the figures show
Hp’s policies and achievements towards diversity over the years. At Hp, employees believe that diversity
and inclusion are key drivers for creativity, innovation and invention. Throughout the world, they are
putting their differences to work to connect everyone to the power of technology. Creating a diverse,
inclusive environment has been an ongoing journey of continuous action for many years. It has been a
journey guided by deeply held values and norms with strong leadership. Hp perceives ‘Diversity’ as the
existence of many unique individuals in the workplace, marketplace and community. This includes men
and women from different nations, cultures, ethnic groups, generations, backgrounds, skills, abilities and
all the other unique differences that make each of the employees exceptional. By ‘Inclusion’ Hp means a
work environment where everyone has an opportunity to fully participate in creating business success and
where each • Reinvented Global Diversity organization to support business success • Expanded diversity
focus to include the marketplace, workplace and community • Diversity & Work/Life Manager named for
Europe, Middle East and Africa • Diversity & Work/Life Manager named for Asia-Pacific • Diversity
Lead named for Latin America • Development of collaborative partnerships internally and externally •
Global Alliance formed to assess diversity and inclusion needs worldwide • HP Diversity Council formed
with senior executive leadership from each HP business to develop, direct and champion diversity
initiatives worldwide • HP Accessibility Policy for products and services announced and HP Accessibility
Solutions organization formed • Ron Brown Award for Diversity in Education • Digital Villages launched
to contribute to closing the digital divide Managing Diversity at Workplace 167 person is valued for his
or her distinctive skills, experiences and perspectives. Inclusion is also about creating a global community
where Hp connects everyone and everything through its products, services and its winning workforce. In
fact diversity and inclusion are woven into the fabric of the company (Hp, 2008). At Hp, it is recognized
that creating a diverse, inclusive work environment is a journey of continuous renewal. Each step in the
process has an important significance to remember as it moves forward into the 21st century (Figure 7).
Together the steps create a diversity value chain upon which it is building its winning global workforce
and workplace. Dealing with Increasingly Multicultural Work force As Hp has grown and expanded
throughout the world, its work force has become more diverse and this diverse work force helps the
company realize its full potential. Recognizing and developing the talents of each individual brings new
ideas to Hp. The company benefits from the creativity and innovation that result when Hp people who
have different experiences, perspectives and cultures work together. This is what drives invention and
high performance at Hp. The increasingly multicultural, diverse and high-achieving workforce is the
sustainable competitive advantage that differentiates Hp to win in the marketplaces, workplaces and
communities around the world. Over the years, Hp ensures an inclusive, flexible work environment that
values differences and motivates employees to contribute their best. Hp believes that to better serve
customers, it must attract, develop, promote and retain a diverse workforce. Trust, mutual respect and
dignity are fundamental beliefs which are reflected in the behaviour and actions of the employees of Hp.
Moreover, accountability for diversity and inclusion goals drives the success of Hp.

Gender Non-discrimination in hp
Hp non-discrimination policy includes electronic job posting, harassment-free work environment,
domestic partner benefits and employee network groups. Since its founding, Hp has demonstrated an
ongoing commitment to people and to fair employment practices. Hp’s policies and supporting practices
include a set of values that consist of a strong belief that all employees should be treated with dignity and
respect. In accordance with this, Hp does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for
employment because of race, creed, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender
identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, or covered veteran status. It is also Hp’s policy to
comply with all applicable national and local laws pertaining to non-discrimination and equal opportunity
(Hp, 2008). Another example of non discrimination is revealed when Hp receives perfect score in Human
Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index in September, 20, 2005. Hp has scored 100
percent on the Corporate Equality Index for three consecutive years (Hp, 2008).

Summary
Globalizing organizations encounter enormous challenges in the quest to manage the diversities of their
workforce. These diversities entail differences existing among people working in the organization with
regard to parameters such as gender, race, community values, age, sexual affection, income levels, work
experience, parental status, religious beliefs, ethnicity, religion, and physical abilities amongst others.

As organizations diversify, the approaches deployed to address workforce management issues are critical
in influencing the performance of an organization in the competitive market place. Dessler (2004)
reckons, “the importance of diversity management has been communicated by academics and
professionals alike, citing the many benefits of having a heterogeneous organization, as opposed to
homogeneous organization”

An increasing number of scholarly studies reveal that a direct correlation exists between employees,
attendance, job performance, dedication and perception of being valuable resources of an organization.
For instance, according to Pope “if management and team members fail to value women and minorities,
company productivity will likely suffer as a consequence”